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This room is for discussion related to learning about the faith (Catechetics), defense of the Faith (Apologetics), the Liturgy and canon law, motivated by a desire to grow closer to Christ or to bring someone else closer.

Saint Augustine of Hippo is considered on of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time and the Doctor of the Church. Learn More:Saint Augustine

I am finding it very painful to be a single Catholic who is following the teachings of the Church, in regard to abstinence before marriage. It is not so much that it is painful for me to follow the teachings, but rather, painful to see such a small number of other Catholics willing (able?) to follow the teachings. Is anyone else feeling this way / seeing this problem?

I visited with my priest about this a few days ago, with many tears. It doesn't seem that it should be so difficult to find others among the Catholic ranks that have a fervor for living this teaching. Can anyone share their feelings about this? I only know a few other Catholics who followed this teaching prior to their marriage (but now they are married) . . . so I am feeling very lonely in this pain. Any thoughts, ideas, feelings, or remedies appreciated!

Christ tells us, scripture shows us, that the road to Hell is wide, whereas the one to Heaven is narrow and difficult to travel. Its not a far stretch to make the statement that there will be many christians and catholics in hell. A lot will be for the sins of the flesh.

It is by no means an easy life, and who said it would be? Christ didn't.

I used to be thoroughly annoyed/despairing over the amount of people who were living in horrific sin. Catholics who were contracepting, fornicating, aborting, co-habitating. I have "catholic" friends who partake in the Eucharist who are engaged in promiscious homosexual activity. It was very hard to watch.

One day, when meditating on what it meant to have "full knowledge/full consent", I realised that so many of those people living those lives just have no idea. They are so incredibly ignorant. And those who do know better, have fallen so far from the light that they can barely see their way back. I went from being angry and annoyed at those people and their actions to feeling absolute pity.

So what did I do? I started praying for them.

The secular world will make excuses, have been peddling the "sex is natural, have it when you want, with who you want, however you want, regardless of marriage". People have fallen for this, including many uneducated catholics.

As for the teaching of the Church, its God's instruction for our life. Its not a "lifestyle choice" its a requirement. If we fornicate, if we contracept, if we engage in homosexual activity, if we abort, we will condemn ourselves to Hell. Christ spoke of Hell more than anyone else, why? Because he was warning us. There is a Hell, people are going to go there, people are going to go there for sins of the flesh.

Of course, not doing x to avoid going to Hell is bad motivation. You should not do x because you love God and you know it offends him, and if you love God will you try your darnest not to hurt or offend him.

God loves us, He wants the best for us, sex out of wedlock is not in our best interest.

Look around society and what do you see? Yeah, a hard life trying to stay chaste, but look at all the messes caused by fornication. STDs, unplanned pregnancies, abortion, co-habitation, divorce rates through the roof, kids being raised in single parent homes, kids suffering from divorces, women and men gravely emotionally wounded by exes and harmful sexual experiences, increased rates of date rapes and rape, huge porn addictions that actually change the chemicals in the brain to make it difficult for a man to gain arousal from a "normal" woman, taking that damage into marriage is not helpful, masturbation, loneliness.

What more does a person need to see that the Church's teaching on sexuality is the best thing for us. It came straight from God, these teachings, they are not out of the mouths of bitter old virgin men sitting in dusty old churches wanting to spread their misery. God built our bodies, he knows how we work, what damages us.

Pray. Spend time in adoration. Pray the rosary, Mother Mary is a perpetual virgin, she knows better than anyone what its like, pray to St. Max Kolbe who accepted both virginity and matrydom.

End of the day, our modern day complaints about difficulties living the Christian way are nothing compared to what Christians have faced through the ages. No one's going to feed you to the lions for having a Bible.

Kudos to you for following the Church's teachings, especially on pre-marital sex. You are like a diamond in the rough, I can assure you. I myself am a follower of the Church's teachings in this area but like you, I find it hard to find someone of the opposite sex who is also on the same page as me. I do not buy into the excuse that it is "just harder for guys to wait." I believe that with the help of the Holy Spirit and through prayer and other means of communicating with God that a man can hold out just like a woman can. It is a matter of self-control. As the Bible says, (paraphrased) "The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." I find that if you want to find a man who is on the same page as us, you're going to have to find one that is VERY close to God. If he is not in a strong relationship with God then he undoubtedly will not be on the same page as you. There are men out there--trust me! However, they are like us--few and far between. Maybe who God has for you has not held out, but is repentful and has changed his ways. Try to keep this in mind as well. However, ideally it'd be great to find someone who had waited as well.

You are so right-on! I wish there were more females your age in my area for me to hang out with! I need good, strong Catholic friends like you. I always say that the narrow-path is the best path. It is the path Jesus walked. However, because it is narrow, it is often lonely. Hence, why finding a mate is not so easy. However, we must continue to hold out and wait for whomever God has. I know I'd rather wait for Mr. Right than to end up with Mr. Wrong.

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." G K Chesterton

That is the way it is with sexual morality.

I praise God for everyone who believes the Truth about how destructive living a life of sexual sin can be. You are NOT alone, and you will find someone who loves God as much as you do (and proves it by how they conduct themselves).

What people need to know is that all laws have consequences...like the law of gravity...you jump out a window, the law of gravity will have an immediate affect.

But when you break a moral law, it too has a consequence, it just is not instantaneous like the law of gravity,but just as serious.

Many saints and mystics have reported that more people are burning in hell for sexual sin than any other kind of sin.

Satan's greatest deception is that he has convinced everyone that nothing is a sin anymore, especially in the sexual realm.

We are truly a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.

As Naomi said, the road to hell is wide, and the way to heaven is narrow; choose the narrow way.

(Quote)Naomi-698107 said:
Christ tells us, scripture shows us, that the road to Hell is wide, whereas the one to Heaven is ...

(Quote)Naomi-698107 said:

Christ tells us, scripture shows us, that the road to Hell is wide, whereas the one to Heaven is narrow and difficult to travel. Its not a far stretch to make the statement that there will be many christians and catholics in hell. A lot will be for the sins of the flesh.

It is by no means an easy life, and who said it would be? Christ didn't.

I used to be thoroughly annoyed/despairing over the amount of people who were living in horrific sin. Catholics who were contracepting, fornicating, aborting, co-habitating. I have "catholic" friends who partake in the Eucharist who are engaged in promiscious homosexual activity. It was very hard to watch.

One day, when meditating on what it meant to have "full knowledge/full consent", I realised that so many of those people living those lives just have no idea. They are so incredibly ignorant. And those who do know better, have fallen so far from the light that they can barely see their way back. I went from being angry and annoyed at those people and their actions to feeling absolute pity.

So what did I do? I started praying for them.

The secular world will make excuses, have been peddling the "sex is natural, have it when you want, with who you want, however you want, regardless of marriage". People have fallen for this, including many uneducated catholics.

As for the teaching of the Church, its God's instruction for our life. Its not a "lifestyle choice" its a requirement. If we fornicate, if we contracept, if we engage in homosexual activity, if we abort, we will condemn ourselves to Hell. Christ spoke of Hell more than anyone else, why? Because he was warning us. There is a Hell, people are going to go there, people are going to go there for sins of the flesh.

Of course, not doing x to avoid going to Hell is bad motivation. You should not do x because you love God and you know it offends him, and if you love God will you try your darnest not to hurt or offend him.

God loves us, He wants the best for us, sex out of wedlock is not in our best interest.

Look around society and what do you see? Yeah, a hard life trying to stay chaste, but look at all the messes caused by fornication. STDs, unplanned pregnancies, abortion, co-habitation, divorce rates through the roof, kids being raised in single parent homes, kids suffering from divorces, women and men gravely emotionally wounded by exes and harmful sexual experiences, increased rates of date rapes and rape, huge porn addictions that actually change the chemicals in the brain to make it difficult for a man to gain arousal from a "normal" woman, taking that damage into marriage is not helpful, masturbation, loneliness.

What more does a person need to see that the Church's teaching on sexuality is the best thing for us. It came straight from God, these teachings, they are not out of the mouths of bitter old virgin men sitting in dusty old churches wanting to spread their misery. God built our bodies, he knows how we work, what damages us.

Pray. Spend time in adoration. Pray the rosary, Mother Mary is a perpetual virgin, she knows better than anyone what its like, pray to St. Max Kolbe who accepted both virginity and matrydom.

End of the day, our modern day complaints about difficulties living the Christian way are nothing compared to what Christians have faced through the ages. No one's going to feed you to the lions for having a Bible.

--hide--

Naomi you just warmed the cockles of my heart this morning. This is spot on. Gentlemen take note. This is a wise, thinking, beautiful, holy woman of God. Any man should be lucky to have someone like her bearing and teaching his children. Thank you Naomi for your well thought out contributions and just for being you.

(Quote)Pat-5351 said:
"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left ...

(Quote)Pat-5351 said:

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." G K Chesterton

That is the way it is with sexual morality.

I praise God for everyone who believes the Truth about how destructive living a life of sexual sin can be. You are NOT alone, and you will find someone who loves God as much as you do (and proves it by how they conduct themselves).

What people need to know is that all laws have consequences...like the law of gravity...you jump out a window, the law of gravity will have an immediate affect.

But when you break a moral law, it too has a consequence, it just is not instantaneous like the law of gravity,but just as serious.

Many saints and mystics have reported that more people are burning in hell for sexual sin than any other kind of sin.

Satan's greatest deception is that he has convinced everyone that nothing is a sin anymore, especially in the sexual realm.

We are truly a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.

As Naomi said, the road to hell is wide, and the way to heaven is narrow; choose the narrow way.

--hide--

Pat can I just say that I love your wisdom? Please post more as I look forward to your posts.

(Quote)Naomi-698107 said: Christ tells us, scripture shows us, that the road to Hell is wide, whereas the one to Heaven is narrow and dif...

(Quote)Naomi-698107 said:

Christ tells us, scripture shows us, that the road to Hell is wide, whereas the one to Heaven is narrow and difficult to travel. Its not a far stretch to make the statement that there will be many christians and catholics in hell. A lot will be for the sins of the flesh.

It is by no means an easy life, and who said it would be? Christ didn't.

I used to be thoroughly annoyed/despairing over the amount of people who were living in horrific sin. Catholics who were contracepting, fornicating, aborting, co-habitating. I have "catholic" friends who partake in the Eucharist who are engaged in promiscious homosexual activity. It was very hard to watch.

One day, when meditating on what it meant to have "full knowledge/full consent", I realised that so many of those people living those lives just have no idea. They are so incredibly ignorant. And those who do know better, have fallen so far from the light that they can barely see their way back. I went from being angry and annoyed at those people and their actions to feeling absolute pity.

So what did I do? I started praying for them.

The secular world will make excuses, have been peddling the "sex is natural, have it when you want, with who you want, however you want, regardless of marriage". People have fallen for this, including many uneducated catholics.

As for the teaching of the Church, its God's instruction for our life. Its not a "lifestyle choice" its a requirement. If we fornicate, if we contracept, if we engage in homosexual activity, if we abort, we will condemn ourselves to Hell. Christ spoke of Hell more than anyone else, why? Because he was warning us. There is a Hell, people are going to go there, people are going to go there for sins of the flesh.

Of course, not doing x to avoid going to Hell is bad motivation. You should not do x because you love God and you know it offends him, and if you love God will you try your darnest not to hurt or offend him.

God loves us, He wants the best for us, sex out of wedlock is not in our best interest.

Look around society and what do you see? Yeah, a hard life trying to stay chaste, but look at all the messes caused by fornication. STDs, unplanned pregnancies, abortion, co-habitation, divorce rates through the roof, kids being raised in single parent homes, kids suffering from divorces, women and men gravely emotionally wounded by exes and harmful sexual experiences, increased rates of date rapes and rape, huge porn addictions that actually change the chemicals in the brain to make it difficult for a man to gain arousal from a "normal" woman, taking that damage into marriage is not helpful, masturbation, loneliness.

What more does a person need to see that the Church's teaching on sexuality is the best thing for us. It came straight from God, these teachings, they are not out of the mouths of bitter old virgin men sitting in dusty old churches wanting to spread their misery. God built our bodies, he knows how we work, what damages us.

Pray. Spend time in adoration. Pray the rosary, Mother Mary is a perpetual virgin, she knows better than anyone what its like, pray to St. Max Kolbe who accepted both virginity and matrydom.

End of the day, our modern day complaints about difficulties living the Christian way are nothing compared to what Christians have faced through the ages. No one's going to feed you to the lions for having a Bible.

--hide--

Naomi,

Have you considered youth ministry? You are an excellent role model and would be an outstanding youth minister for young girls and boys.